EAD Conclusion:

EAD is a rapidly changing metadata scheme. From SGML to XML, to OAI rebellion to gradually increasing OAI compliance, EAD is changing and improving year to year. EAD has completely established itself as the archival metadata scheme -- there is no real rival -- but it has certain limitations in useability and interoperability that are slowly being addressed.

The XML foundation of EAD is admittedly complicated. It is not practical for an archivist to manually input all the DTD angled brackets <>s of the language. Automatic EAD tools are being developed, but there is no universally accepted tool.

Overall, EAD has brought archivists, explorers of vanished historical worlds into the forefront of technology. XML EAD is the 21st century answer to the question of how to find 17th century, 16th century, 15th century and before information.